Feather your Nest Friday, 1st April, 2022.

Here we are in April!  It was a beautiful day.  We have the loveliest days and cool nights.  

The week was a continuation of last week, putting up food.   I will tell you about today first, it was so nice.   We worked outside most of the day.   If you remember how I had to go into the chicken house and catch the small chicks every night and put them away because they couldn't navigate the ramp... well after about ten days of that I decided I was going to invest in two little coops just for broody hens and chicks.    Today they were set up.  One is pink and one is yellow.   They are so sweet.  I put my young Silkie Bantams my friend gave me into the pink cage.  This is temporary as they are small still.  (I really wanted to call these Laverne and Shirley... except one is a rooster... so no names so far.) 

 

The second coop is for my next lot of chicks.   

At the beginning of the pandemic chickens became hard to get.  Everyone had the same idea.. to get set up because supermarket shelves were unreliable.   I knew then that I needed roosters and start breeding my own.  With some trading I was soon in business!   They are not that close to the house so they don't drive me crazy as I expected.  And now we get chicks!  

With being prepared and building up the pantry I consider the garden and the hens to be an important part. No matter how much we stock up those things are going to run out sometime.  We need as many things as we can that keep on producing.   A continuous supply of eggs is protein that I know my Grandkids will always get.   We have enough hens that I collect 1 to 2 dozen eggs a day.  This is enough to keep us, plus family in eggs and give me some to trade or gift as well.    I want to do everything I can to keep this going and have younger hens coming on every year.   So this week my added the coops for chicks really improved my set up.  We are also getting ahead on feed.  We can free range chicken during the day.  I decided to do this in rotation so that some hens are locked up and some free range and take turns... just in case we ever had a fox during the day.   The dogs are on the job and seem to keep them away but in an effort to not put all my eggs in one basket I will not have them all out at once.   This keeps them laying beautiful coloured eggs and healthier, happier chooks and the feed bill wayyy down! 

It was a wonderful day!   Before I got outside I re filled the dehydrator with apple so they were doing their thing while we were out working. 

This week I used the last pear.  I was peeling pears when I came to the very last one.   When it was peeled and sliced I imagined a moment like you see on TV game shows where the winner is showered in confetti and there is a huge celebration.  That is pretty much how it felt!  The two pear trees had given us hundreds of pears! 

I delivered more puree to Chloe as Thomas eats it everyday and I froze lots more batches.

My freezer is stocked with baby food.  I have stewed fruit every morning for breakfast.

The dehydrator continued to run daily.    I traded eggs for tomatoes and they went into the dehydrator too. They were a large cherry tomato, just a lovely size. 

This whole tray of tomatoes ended up fitting into one jar.   

When I make a quiche or impossible pie I drop some of these in.  They are so good.

I had a collection of left over Capsicums.  I sliced them up and it was a surprising amount.  This gave me another jar to put away.

The pears and apples are absolutely beautiful. 

The supermarket had one good deal and that was heads of celery for $2.   I bought one and dehydrated the lot, all the leaves included.  Amazingly this jar shown below holds half.  I write on each jar the amount... as you would never guess by looking!   This will end up in chicken soup. 

The basil in my container garden is going crazy so I picked a big bunch.

I made Pesto and froze some.  

Mimi from A Tray of Bliss Blog taught me to make Pesto.  It is simply a few raw cloves of garlic,  some roasted pine nuts, cashews or blanched almonds (I use blanched almonds which I lightly roast) a glug of olive oil,  a handful or parmesan cheese and as much basil as you can stuff into your blender.   

I taste it and keep adding until I think it is delicious.  It should be like a thick dip.   With a steak, in a burger, stirred though pasta,  on a pizza, with cream and chicken...  it is so good.  And it freezes!  

Another day I put two bags of frozen veggies into the dehydrator.  They were one kilo each (2.2 pounds each.)   Frozen veggies make dehydrating so easy as they are already blanched which is good for most veggies.  

The kilo bags are quite bulky.  Once dehydrated they fit into a small jar.   So these jars contain one kilo each.   You can save a lot of freezer space and put up a lot of food on your shelf without using much space.  I wrote "1 kilo mixed veg." on each jar so I don't forget. 

I got a few questions about the apple peeler.   Here is Andy giving a demo as I didn't have enough hands to film and peel! 

The peeler/corer is the best thing I ever bought!   I use it on potatoes for spirals, they roast up so nicely!  It even did the Quinces and they are tough!   I did several hundred pears in the last couple of weeks and several hundred apples and they take less than 10 seconds each. 

I made a few cards, I hope to go on with them over the weekend.  My goal is to send special letters that are pretty enough to keep as bookmarks.  When I get something lovely in the mail from a friend I very often save it as bookmark. The best ones are in my Bible.  They are special.  I have my Great Grand Mothers Bible and she saved cards from her best friends and they are still marking certain pages.  They are just beautiful.   I know that she must have treasured these notes and cards. 

That was my week. Filling jars!   And I am glad of it.  

On Wednesday morning I had a message from a friend in the UK.   She was telling me how empty her supermarket shelves are.  It was alarming.   We had a discussion, her husband goes fishing and is good at it so they will have fish.  He can also go get a few bunnies because their friends have a farm.  We talked about trading and her neighbour who has refused to stock a pantry and now is freaking out!

I made breakfast then I had another message.  This time from a friend in Adelaide.  He had been to the supermarket, came home and messaged me.... "Annabel there was no rice, pasta, flour or sugar!!"  He actually sounded shocked.   I had two messages the same, from opposite ends of the earth,  that morning.  

I have a cautionary tale to tell.   The young man I mentioned above had a discussion with me about having more than one bank.   I told him never keep your accounts all in one bank.    A couple of weeks ago I missed a crisis in my own bank account!    It worked out ok as by the time I noticed it the problem had been fixed,  otherwise I would have had a shock.   My bank account had been completely wiped out.  Someone took out every last cent and then some.  Then bank had charged me a $37.00 overdrawn fee.    Five days later the bank paid me back the money.  Just like that.  Nothing about where the heck did my money go!!?  What?!   Finally I went into the bank, not easy as they close all the country branches...   and eventually they admitted they made a big boo boo....  and had the nerve to charge me $37 for it!   

Check your statements.  Double check everything!   It is unnerving that you can wake up and you're broke!  😭

How did you build up your garden or pantry this week?  How did you keep your home a warm and happy sanctuary from the world!?   

For those that know Laine and are praying I have permission to share more.  Laine has cancer in her bowel and she is scheduled for surgery later in the month.   She has a very restricted diet but needs to eat and gain some strength.  So this is an area to pray for, that she can eat and that it builds her up.  I will keep you posted as I am able.  She is very grateful for prayers.  

Have a good weekend! xxx